Dragon Queen came out in paperback last weeks and I have a few copies, a tiny precious few. For anyone who hasn’t already listened to be go on about it, Dragon Queen is my attempt to keep all the good stuff from the first series but with vastly more world building and character depth (hopefully sort of like The Black Mausoleum). So it’s not going to be quite the relentlessly fast roller-coaster of The Adamantine Palace but on the other hand you do get an entire last act that should read like Call of Duty: Dragon Warfare if I’ve done it right. There are some tasters here and here and here.There are a few reviews about the place on Goodreads and Amazon and so forth of you care about such things. I wouldn’t say no to a few more. HINT HINT.

You wanted to know more about the Taiytakei: here they are. And possibly they just made a very big mistake. Efforts continue to write the last volume in this sequence.

I have two copies to give away. One here and one on Twitter. Usual deal – comment on this post before April 21st and I’ll randomly select a lucky victim for a free copy.

This week, like we did last summer, we’re playing Dragon Supermarket. So you need your comment to come up with something to do with fire and dragons and the comments have to be in alphabetical order. So for example, A is for Absolutely Run Like Fuck When You See One, B is for Burn, C is for Change Your Underwear If You Survive, etc…

Anyway, to enter the competition, you have to play the game. You can enter as may times as you like and I’ll count the first two entries – the rest are just for fun and showing off. Extra points for humour and originality and just for once I’ll throw in an Angry Dragons mug if you make me laugh, smirk or otherwise amuse me.

Although, though no one has yet complained about how long it takes me to get to the post office and post things, it can take a while and if you live abroad then it can take even longer. Sorry about that, but they do get there eventually. Well, so far. I am currently a little behind.

ELITE!!!!! (at this point please picture a hyperkinetic author running about in wide circles waving his arms in the air). So there’s an announcement about Elite: Dangerous tie-in novels. Meanwhile the proofs for The Splintered Gods are done, the proofs for Elite: Wanted are well on their way and hurrah, that’s the end of page proofs for a while and I can get back to The Silver Kings.

Anyhow, if you read the Elite news, you’ll know that Gollancz SF author Gavin Smith and I have turned into some hideous chimera EVEN WORSE THAN EITHER ONE OF US ALONE to write Elite: Wanted. So this week I’m giving away some of Gavin’s books to deny him a few pennies in sales and generally be cruel in a petty kind of way.

Usual deal – comment on this post before April 14th and I’ll randomly select lucky victims. This week I want to know WHY HAVEN’T YOU READ DRAGON QUEEN YET spaceship names. Ones that you’d like to see in print, not ones already there. Who knows…

Although, though no one has yet complained about how long it takes me to get to the post office and post things, it can take a while and if you live abroad then it can take even longer. Sorry about that, but they do get there eventually. I’m off to the post office RIGHT NOW to clear the Big Book Bonanza. And Blood of Elves (sorry, Blood of Elves winner).